Catch, tag and release: ODFW monitors black rockfish population

Posted: Tuesday, Jun 25th, 2013BY: Steve Card

The Gracie K, a charter boat with Yaquina Bay Charters in Newport, returns to port after an 8-hour fishing trip on Friday. Aboard are Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff members and volunteer fishermen who spent the day catching, tagging and releasing black rockfish as part of a monitoring program. (Photo by Steve Card)

For the past 11 years, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Resources Program has been monitoring black rockfish along the central Oregon coast through a catch-and-release tagging program, which helps them to estimate population, migration and growth rates of the species.